Issue 112459

I am trying to store and edit metadata for an archive of about 60,000 images.
Existing photo library programs like Picasa are unacceptable because:
1. It is difficult or impossible to import existing metadata from databases or
spreadsheets (the show stopper)
2. I am not interested in editing the images or creating slideshows using the
library program. (minor problem)

The ideal solution would be to use a spreadsheet or database to store the
metadata, and link each record to a thumbnail image. Unfortunately, both Excel
and Open Office only link images by clicking a file one at a time. What is
needed is the ability to link to a file by text command so that a list of file
names can be used to display the corresponding images. (I'm prepared to use text
functions, etc. to convert the file names to the appropriate command formats.) 
Hyperlinks are not an acceptable solution because I want the images to appear
automatically without having to be clicked. As far as I can tell there are no
extensions that address this issue.

What I envision is something like a function, say DISPLAY(Pathname, Offset,
Width, Height) where Pathname is the image location, Offset is the location
relative to the function cell, and Width and Height are the display dimensions
of the image. Offset would eliminate the problem of having the formula obscured
by the image.